Eight Collaborative Learning Activities To Energize Your Lesson

Not every group work task requires you to design a formal project or give up a week of class time. Opportunities to insert collaborative learning activities can be found within nearly every one of your daily lessons.  

The benefits of collaborative learning activities for students:

1. A more student-centered approach gives students a sense of autonomy in the learning process
2. Allow students to fully develop their understanding of an idea by explaining their ideas to others 
3. Reduce the dependence on the teacher for academic and behavioral monitoring
4. Develop social skills, leadership, and teamwork

Collaborative Learning Activities

Collaborative Activity #1: Think, Pair, Share

Useful for: Helping students recall or gather ideas.  Best for brief conversations in which every student has a chance to talk.

Example:  The teacher introduces the question:  “Let’s evaluate the claim that the French Revolution improved life for the average French citizen.”

Step 1: Ask students to think (and possibly write down) their thoughts on the question.  Step 1 should take 1 minute.

Step 2: Students turn and share with their partner.  Each person takes a turn to discuss their thoughts on the question.  Optionally, the teacher can ask that students reach a consensus or identify how their opinions differ — two minutes.

Step 3: Students are then asked to share responses (either their own or their partner’s) with the whole class.  Once students have had time to think and discuss, the barrier to participation is very low — nearly every student will have something to say. 

Collaborative Activity #2: Snowball Brainstorm

Useful for: Structured group conversations that guide students toward a desired outcome.

Example: The teacher asks students to think about the effects of climate change. 

Step 1: Working individually at first, students have one minute to jot down a list of ideas. 

Step 2: Then, students are paired up. The two students discuss their ideas and agree on the 3-5 most important effects of climate change.  This should take two minutes.

Step 3: Next, partner groups are paired up.  In fours, compare lists and pick two effects of climate change that you believe will have the biggest impact on human life. For each of the two answers selected, create 2-3 questions you’d like to answer as you begin your research.  Give students three minutes for this step.  This strategy allows for movement and working with other students while giving them the task of making choices and evaluating information.

Collaborative Activity #3: Jigsaw

Useful for: Tasks that can easily be broken down into 4-5 small sections.

Example: A math teacher has a lesson on various ways to solve complex equations. 

Step 1: A topic, text, or assignment is divided into sections. In ‘Home’ groups of four or five, students take a section each.

Step 2: Students are regrouped into ‘Expert’ groups comprising other students in the class who are responsible for the same section of the lesson. The experts work together to complete their section. 

Step 3: Students return to their “Home” groups to report on their area of expertise. 

Step 4: The home group is then given a task that requires the students to use the different areas of expertise for a joint outcome. This strategy requires advanced planning but is a very effective speaking and listening strategy because it ensures that all students participate.

Collaborative Activity #4: Small Group Quizzes

Useful for: Encouraging student discussion of content and for turning a “quiz” into a learning tool.

Example: The class is taking a multiple-choice quiz at the end of a lesson on the causes of the Industrial Revolution.

Best practices for group quizzes:

1. Groups of 2, 3, or 4 allow for best discussions

2. Multiple-choice or short-answer questions work best.  Not recommended for long-answer or essay questions.

3. Clarify how the quizzes will be graded.  What if students disagree?

Collaborative Activity #5: Lesson Break

Useful for: Promoting interaction in the middle of a lecture, note-taking activity, or reading.

Example: The teacher has a 20-minute lecture on heredity and the inheritance of traits.

Step 1: Pause at transitional points in your lecture or lesson.

Step 2: Ask students to turn into groups of 2 or 3 to compare notes.  Ideally, you will give them a couple of minutes to discuss and complete a task that requires summarizing, sorting, selecting, or evaluating.  The possibilities are endless, but a few options:

• Have groups create a “headline” for the lecture
• Ask groups to come up with one or two questions they have about the content
• Prompt students to select the three most important details of the lesson
• Have groups identify a connection to the content from their own lives, from a previous unit, or from another class

Not only does this strategy break up teacher talk time or another independent activity, it gives students the opportunity to process what they are learning by thinking about it in a different and creative way.  It also promotes collaboration and gives you a break from talking.

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Collaborative Activity #6: Carousel

Useful for: Introducing broad topics or reviewing key ideas from the semester.

Example: At the end of the first semester, a Social Studies teacher begins review for the final exam with a carousel.  Topics include The Roman Empire, Medieval Europe, The Rise of Islam, and 5 other major topics covered in class.

Step 1: The teacher should identify 7-10 subtopics for the carousel.

This can also be used as an informal pre-test to see what students know at the beginning of a course or unit. The topics should be open-ended and allow for multiple answers or thoughts.  Write each topic on a separate piece of poster paper.  

Step 2: Place students into groups of 3.  Assign each group a different color pen or marker.  This color identifies their group and encourages accountability.  (Alternatively, you could ask students to sign their name or group number after each comment.)

Step 3: Pass out the posters, one per group.  Each group should discuss the topic and write down one thought.  Rotate who does the writing.

Step 4: After a minute or so, rotate the posters.  (Or, you can hang the posters on the wall and ask the students to rotate.)  When each group gets the next poster, they should read what is already written and add a new fact or idea to the poster.

Step 5: Continue to rotate until every group has seen every poster.  As the posters fill up with ideas, provide more time for students to complete each poster.

A key element to the effectiveness of this strategy is that students have to read the comments of their peers and add something new to the “conversation.”  This creates an opportunity for students to talk in their groups and come up with new information or a new angle that has not yet been listed on the poster paper.

To end, once students have their original poster back, they read over all of the comments and then choose the most powerful comment on the poster board.  Students can then read that one comment out to the whole class as a way to close the activity.

Collaborative Activity #7: Reading Triads

Useful for: Text-based discussion and reading comprehension.

Example: A Science teacher wants students to read a two-page article on the cycling of water through the Earth’s systems.

Step 1: In groups of three, assign (or let students pick) one of three roles: Summarizer, Clarifier, and Questioner.

Step 2: At various points, pause the reading and initiate a discussion by asking the Summarizer to restate the main ideas of the reading in a few sentences.  The Questioner should identify one or two questions the reading posed.  The Clarifier will help untangle confusing ideas in the reading or answer questions that were brought up by the Questioner.

This is a great activity for more complex texts.  Students may initially be frustrated by the interruptions, but if you place them strategically, their comprehension of the reading will be vastly improved in comparison to summarizing, clarifying, and questioning only at the end of the reading.

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Collaborative Activity #8: Act It Out

Useful for: Injecting energy, movement, and creativity into a lesson.

Example: A Social Studies class is reading about numerous ways that humans adapted to survive life in the Arabian Desert.  This works best with answers that depict an action or movement. 

Step 1: Identify a part of your lesson in which students typically share answers.  

Step 2: In small groups (2-3) ask students to create a short act-it-out to show the answer instead of simply saying it. 

Step 3: Volunteer groups come to the front of the class and demonstrate the answer.  A hearty round of applause or other reward can be given.

*In my experience, this works best with middle school or early high school students.  It’s also a great activity to do if there is some sort of a special schedule, spirit day, or any other day when excitement is high and students may need to do something a little different.

Brad has taught history at the middle and high school levels for 19 years, almost exclusively in American public schools.  He has a master’s in educational technology and is passionate about elevating the status of professional educators.